Campaign Institute 2024 Information and Requirements
Below, read more about the Campaign Institute, including information about the program and what participating nonprofits will gain, and requirements based on organization size, geography, and what is expected of participants.
We’re sorry, the application period for this cohort closed March 22, 2024.
About the RaiseMN Campaign Institute
Now in its 9th year, the RaiseMN Campaign Institute is a seven-month program for 28 small-to- medium-sized nonprofits (budgets under $2 million) in Greater Minnesota and the Twin Cities East Metro.
As a cohort, participating organizations will engage in expert fundraising coaching and peer learning to build their fundraising knowledge, confidence, and outcomes. This will include monthly sessions with your coach and four full-cohort gatherings. Our coaching team is committed to your success and is excited to help you get there.
Thanks to our generous partners at the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation, participants will receive coaching at no cost. Participants must provide their own technology to attend trainings and coaching sessions via Zoom.
We recognize and value the effort needed to participate in the Campaign Institute, and each organization will be awarded a grant of $2,500 upon completion to honor participants’ time and energy.
About Fundraising Coaching
Fundraising coaching differs from fundraising consulting, and the Campaign Institute team is committed to the coaching process. Whereas consulting is about an outsider building something for you and turning over a product, coaching is about guiding you through a series of questions and conversations that get to the heart of the work so the knowledge lives within your organization.
We see this as crucial and more sustainable for nonprofits. In coaching, we operate on a set of three core principles:
Organizations are the experts on their work and people: We start every relationship from the beginning, taking a deeply collaborative approach that co-creates solutions based on your work, capacity, and audience.
We coach and teach fundraising that centers on the wellbeing of your staff, board, and volunteers: We focus on fundraising that is deeply honest, authentic, transparent, and relational; fundraising that builds a donor base to which you want to be accountable; and fundraising that mobilizes the resources you need for your work without compromising your values.
We coach for sustainability: Our goal is to build your organization’s internal fundraising expertise so you can replicate your success long after our partnership is over. We leave participants with more knowledge, added skills, stronger fundraising infrastructure, and deeper donor relationships.
What Your Organization Will Learn in the RaiseMN Campaign Institute
In monthly coaching sessions and four full-cohort gatherings, participating organizations will have the opportunity to explore topics such as:
Time, data and culture of fundraising
How to engage your board of directors
Familiarizing yourself with the donor cycle
Donor stewardship and retention systems
Fundraiser safety and wellbeing
How to build a case statement
You will be a part of a cohort that will engage and share mutual issues and interests, resulting in the emergence of new views, ideas, and strategies for fundraising.
Program Eligibility
Organizations eligible for Campaign Institute must be:
Located in or primarily serving the Twin Cities East Metro (Dakota, Ramsey, and/or Washington Counties) or Greater Minnesota (all other Minnesota counties except Anoka, Carver, Hennepin or Scott) or the Native nations that share Minnesota’s geography
An incorporated, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (If you are fiscally sponsored, please submit combined documents reflecting both your organization and your fiscal sponsor.)
Have an annual expense budget of $2 million or less in your current fiscal year
About Your Organization
The Campaign Institute is best for organizations that are:
Ready to learn about individual fundraising with commitment across board and staff
Eager to build relationships with donors of all contribution levels
Excited to grow and build capacity for fundraising within their staff, volunteers, and/or board
members
Committed to attending monthly coaching sessions, able to engage in a virtual coaching capacity, and ideally will commit to meeting with their internal team between sessions
And who share the GiveMN values of:
Operating from Abundance: GiveMN operates from a place of abundance, not scarcity, believing that philanthropy is not a zero-sum game and that our resources are best invested in ideas that ‘grow the pie’ and bring more people to the philanthropic table.
Connected to Community: GiveMN is accountable to and connected with the communities we serve, believing that our ideas are improved by listening and responding to the needs of our stakeholders and that when making strategic decisions, we will be informed by the organizations and donors we serve and the funders who support our work.
Equity in Action: GiveMN has a responsibility to actualize systems, practices, and services that create more equitable access to resources, acknowledging that structures of inequity exist in philanthropy.
Courage to Try: GiveMN strongly values informed action over prolonged analysis and believes that the substantial change we want to realize in our state requires courage, innovation, and calculated risk.
Program Priorities
We know that nonprofits led by and/or serving Black people, Indigenous people, people of color (BIPOC) and LGBTQ+ people often face greater inequities due to societal and structural discrimination, making it more difficult to access fundraising opportunities and reproducing cycles of financial inequality. Evidence shows that organizations that are led by and center BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and rural people receive less philanthropic support than their peer organizations at large.
Therefore, priority will be given to applying organizations that:
Are led by BIPOC and/or LGBTQ+ people
Are primarily serving BIPOC communities and/or LGBTQ+ communities
Additionally, we are committed to ensuring that 40% of the selected Campaign Institute organizations are located in and/or primarily serving Greater Minnesota.
How to Apply
The application period for his cohort closed March 22nd, 2024.
Participant Commitment & Expectations
Each organization’s application must identify the three participants who are committed to attending all sessions and meetings for the duration of the program.
Because RaiseMN seeks to transform each organization's overall fundraising culture, knowledge, outcomes, and confidence, we require three people, representing both board and staff, to be involved in all coaching sessions.
Staff participants should be in leadership and fundraising roles in the organization, whether that is as paid staff or volunteers in volunteer-staffed organizations. One participant must be a board member, not staff. If your organization only has one paid staff member, two of the participants may be board members.
We will ask your three-person team to meet with your coach for one hour each month for a minimum of four coaching sessions. Coaching sessions are generally held Tuesday-Thursday from 8:00 am-4:00 pm central time via Zoom. If selected, you will receive additional information about scheduling logistics.
Contact Us
If you have questions about RaiseMN or the Campaign Institute, we’re happy to help! Please contact us at raisemn@givemn.org.